The sifting or sieving of coarse and fine fractures of grain has traditionally been done with very large and complicated equipment. This results in fewer grain mills being available for use, due to their start-up costs and complexity. With only a few large mills available, resulting product must be shipped for long distances before reaching the customer, resulting in higher shipping costs. Further, locally-grown grains may not be usable by local bakeries, restaurants, and breweries because no grain mill is available locally to mill the grain.
Traditional sifters do not utilize the sieving area in a very efficient manner, or in other words have little sifting surface available and used due to the clogging of sieves by small grinding products. Also many types of different sieves are necessary when making different types of flour with traditional sifters. Traditional sifters also require a large amount of sieving area. Finally, because traditional sifters require special purifiers, with wear and tear focused on particular areas of the sieve, the sieves must be regularly replaced with traditional sifters and this process can take up to 24 hours.